National Urban League Panel Says Incarceration Most Serious Issue Facing Black Males
WASHINGTON
At the 95th National Urban League conference held in Washington last week a distinguished panel of religious leaders, business executives, politicians, activists and journalists gathered together to discuss what some are calling the Black-male crisis.
On average, only 62 percent of Black men graduate from high school with their class. Black men tend to die 10 years earlier than their White counterparts, and twice as many Black women as Black men now attend college. However, all these issues took a back seat to the most critical issue of the session — incarceration. African-American males make up only six percent of the population and 40 percent of the prison population. Forty percent of those inmates are between the ages of 17 and 26.
The diverse group of panelists, which included the Rev. Al Sharpton, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., and Newsweek columnist Ellis Cose among others, had varied assessments in the causes and solutions to the problems Black men face.
Kevin Powell, hip-hop historian an author of Who’s Gonna Take The Weight? Manhood, Race, and Power in America, insisted that Black men and women must develop spiritually, politically, culturally, and economically to be successful. And they must monitor their physical and mental health. According to Powell, there is a difference between the brother who’s consistently locked up and the one who is counseled.
